The southern corn rootworm, Diabrotica undecimpunctata howardi Barber, is an annual soil insect pest of peanut. An index that predicts risk to rootworm damage on individual fields was released in 1997. The original index was validated using 44 commercial peanut field studies. Since release, it has been implemented in 392 additional studies in Virginia and North Carolina. Predicted risk to rootworm damage was compared to actual pod damage. Data were used to further evaluate the original index and determine which combination of factors would provide the highest percentage of correct risk predictions and minimal percentage of incorrect predictions. The best index combination, as with the original version, used all five factors (soil texture, soil drainage class, planting date, cultivar resistance, and field history of rootworm damage). From a practical perspective, using the index resulted in protecting fields from economic loss due to rootworm damage 98.5% of the time.
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Back to The 2002 ESA Annual Meeting and Exhibition